Aston Villa v Leicester City Post Match Thread

[rougegorge]

The tone was set by that first goal. A wholly innocuous situation after a speculative ball went out for a goal kick was turned into an absolute sitter for the opposition. What on earth was Martínez thinking, even though Kamara compounded things.

For the 3rd, I could hear a loud shout of 'man on' from another player to Kamara, but he shouldn't have needed that warning.

The defeat was almost entirely self-inflicted and certainly not what's needed given the next two games.

[Villafirst]

Stupid decision not to replace Danny Ings in the January window. Stupid to keep playing cat and mouse with the ball on the edge of our box - you'd think what happened against mighty Stevenage would be a lesson. This club is so frustrating when presented with an opportunity to push for the top 8.

[Rigadon]

There wasn't much wrong with the tactics today.  Individual errors meant that we gifted them a few goals and, as ever, missed a load of chances to score more goals.  We (still) need a top entry half and a top centre forward.  As far as I'm concerned we are two players away from competing regularly with the top 7 (as it will no doubt soon be called). 

As it stands, we have a solid squad that lacks top quality in two ket areas.  If we had a goal scorer, the out of character mistakes from Kamara would be a footnote rather than a taking point.     

[Risso]

The only hope I have is the reason we didn’t invest in January is that zEmery has realized that this team is so far away from a top 6 team that we are better off keeping our powder dry until the summer.
Clutching at straws

We need to replace loads of them. We've had 4 years of Mings and McGinn and Co, and they're just not consistently good enough. Two or three decent recruits this January were needed, and the same then in the summer.  As it is, we'll probably bring 2 or 3 in the summer, then all act surprised when we finish bottom half again.

[pauliewalnuts]

The only hope I have is the reason we didn’t invest in January is that zEmery has realized that this team is so far away from a top 6 team that we are better off keeping our powder dry until the summer.
Clutching at straws

We need to replace loads of them. We've had 4 years of Mings and McGinn and Co, and they're just not consistently good enough. Two or three decent recruits this January were needed, and the same then in the summer.  As it is, we'll probably bring 2 or 3 in the summer, then all act surprised when we finish bottom half again.

Depressingly, I reckon this is probably correct.

[curiousorange]

The only hope I have is the reason we didn’t invest in January is that zEmery has realized that this team is so far away from a top 6 team that we are better off keeping our powder dry until the summer.
Clutching at straws

We need to replace loads of them. We've had 4 years of Mings and McGinn and Co, and they're just not consistently good enough. Two or three decent recruits this January were needed, and the same then in the summer.  As it is, we'll probably bring 2 or 3 in the summer, then all act surprised when we finish bottom half again.

Depressingly, I reckon this is probably correct.

I'm pretty frustrated with trying to reach success the 'right' way. Spend some money and buy some great players. Ultimately that's what's going to get us there.

[PaulWinch again]

Yep this idea that we’re going to fix all our issues in the summer is pie in the sky.

[SamTheMouse]

The number of times we meekly coughed up possession in our own half way crazy. You can't afford to do that against anyone.

We need some ball-playing defenders quickly, for a start, but the midfield was guilty of dicking about a lot too.

[Goldenballs]

It’s dead set. When there is the slightest chance of 3 points getting us into a good position. We fuck it up. I reckon I’ve seen 20 years of it.

That’s why at 2-1 I bet on Leicester winning. I might as well get some joy out of it.

I’d have been very happy to lose my stake. Extremely happy.

But it was not to be.

Same here. Disappointing, but easy money at 5/2 seeing the dangerous game we were playing.

[Mister E]

Think we played a lot worse lately and won. 3 individual errors cost us three goals. Thought we played some very good stuff with the ball at times creating lots of chances. Without the ball we were a mess though, tactically all over the place. Kamara had a horror show for two goals but offered no protection to their counter attacks either. Far too easy to get at our centre backs throughout.

While Coutinho showed nice touches, we can't get away with a trio of Bailey, Buendia and Coutinho without the ball. Thought Emery went far too attacking at half time. Moreno showed what we can offer going forward for the rest of the season though defensively he will need to improve. Luiz and Buendia were very good. Ollie led the line well, missed his easiest chance but very sharp for our first.

Yet another example today unfortunately as to how we urgently need a centre back comfortable of stepping into midfield and passing through the lines. See Konsa just after half time when they should have scored.
Martinez 6, Young 5 (Cash 5), Konsa 5, Mings 5, Digne 4 (Moreno 6), Luiz 8, Kamara 3, Buendia 8, Bailey 6, Ramsey 4 (Coutinho 6), Watkins 8. Duran showed a couple of nice touches and pace.

This is a spot on summary

Yeah, I'd go with these comments but the player-scoring is a little high.
It was the slowness with moving the ball and a little bit of poor movement from the forward players that did for us - it ed to Kamara getting caught twice for the first two oppo goals.

Really, really annoying to lose to Lesta; particularly with their greasy manager and poor current form.

[Paul.S]

Yep this idea that we’re going to fix all our issues in the summer is pie in the sky.

if we only get a couple in then there’s no chance. A total revamp is needed with quite a few out as well as in. We must improve defensively, out wide and upfront. If we do then there’s a chance we’ll improve and challenge for 6th/7th. It’ll cost and we’ll soon see how ambitious we really are.

[PaulWinch again]

Thing is if you do that all in one window it’ll be impossible to mesh them together for a while. That’s why you should do it in stages and not jack in the January window.

[pauliewalnuts]

Yep this idea that we’re going to fix all our issues in the summer is pie in the sky.

if we only get a couple in then there’s no chance. A total revamp is needed with quite a few out as well as in. We must improve defensively, out wide and upfront. If we do then there’s a chance we’ll improve and challenge for 6th/7th. It’ll cost and we’ll soon see how ambitious we really are.

I think there has to be a realisation, as Risso said, that some players, who are big names around the club, need to be improved on.

McGinn, Mings, Konsa, Watkins (I know that sounds harsh today).

[Paul.S]

Yep this idea that we’re going to fix all our issues in the summer is pie in the sky.

if we only get a couple in then there’s no chance. A total revamp is needed with quite a few out as well as in. We must improve defensively, out wide and upfront. If we do then there’s a chance we’ll improve and challenge for 6th/7th. It’ll cost and we’ll soon see how ambitious we really are.

I think there has to be a realisation, as Risso said, that some players, who are big names around the club, need to be improved on.

McGinn, Mings, Konsa, Watkins (I know that sounds harsh today).

I’d keep Watkins in the squad but not the first 11. The rest I’d agree with 100% and I suspect Emery has seen it as well. I’d be looking at Bailey very closely as well until the end of the season.

[brontebilly]

We played a similar basketball type game v Liverpool earlier in the season. Ignore the three goals due to individual errors, Leicester had a number of other clear chances to score. Tactically we were all over the place without the ball. Distances between full backs and centre backs, centre backs and centre midfielders. Leicester do have dangerous attackers on the counter and we played into their hands at times.